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Agenda

Tanja Temmerman (Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles / KU Leuven)

When the sluice doesn’t come alone. On the syntax of WH+non-WH sluicing in Dutch.

This talk focuses on Dutch sluicing constructions in which the WH-remnant is followed by one or more non-WH-elements (of different types, such as DPs, adverbs, particles, quantifiers, …). Some relevant attested examples are given in (i):

(i) a. Mag ik morgen een vrije dag nemen? – Waarom morgen?

may I tomorrow a free day take – why tomorrow

b. Ik heb een lijst van 10 spelers die weg moeten. – Wie allemaal?

I have a list of 10 players who away must – who all

c. Ik wil daar nu niet over praten. – Wanneer wel?

I want there now not over talk – when AFF

d. Carlo zit in de wijnkelder. – Waar anders?

Carlo sits in the wine-cellar – where else

e. Dat begreep ik wel hoor! – Wie niet dan?

that understood I AFF PRT – who not then

Although some of these examples have already been mentioned in the literature on Dutch ellipsis, a systematic overview and analysis has not yet been given.

Secondly, I will also touch upon the issue of the structure of the ellipsis site in these WH+non-WH sluicing constructions. Starting out from the taxonomy of sluicing put forward in Vicente (2018), I argue that Dutch WH+non-WH sluicing sites do not uniformly have the structure of a regular WH-question, isomorphic to the antecedent. Often, the ellipsis site turns out to be non-isomorphic (cf. a cleft or copular clause). While this is certainly not a new idea, it is striking, though, that some WH+non-WH sluicing constructions seem to have a non-isomorphic ellipsis site that does not immediately fit Vicente’s (2018) sluicing taxonomy.